The Vice President of policy think tank IMANI Africa, Mr Kofi Bentil, is demanding that major South African multinational corporate entities operating in Ghana be forced to financially absorb the cost of evacuating Ghanaian nationals fleeing targeted afrophobic attacks in South Africa.
The outspoken legal practitioner and policy analyst argued that the state should no longer single-handedly shoulder the massive fiscal burden of emergency repatriations while South African commercial entities comfortably repatriate billions of dollars in profits from the Ghanaian market.
According to Mr Bentil, forcing these businesses to contribute financially towards the evacuation exercise being undertaken by the government would serve as a tangible demonstration of their stance against the unfortunate developments in their country of origin.
He maintained that corporate organisations benefiting so heavily from integrated African markets have a non-negotiable moral and structural responsibility to publicly condemn violence against fellow Africans and actively support affected communities.
Singling out major South African retail, telecommunication, and financial giants operating in Ghana and across the continent, Mr Bentil stated, “Companies that make billions across Africa cannot remain silent when Africans are attacked in their home country. What the government is doing comes at a cost. They must bear part of the cost.”
He was speaking on TV3 on Saturday, May 30, 2026.
An Assault on the Sovereign State
Advocating a fundamental shift in Ghana’s traditional diplomatic engagement with Pretoria, Mr Bentil pushed for significantly tougher, uncompromising measures.
He insisted that when a foreign nation repeatedly fails to protect Ghanaian migrants, the state apparatus must elevate the crisis beyond a standard immigration dispute and treat the systemic violence as a direct, hostile infringement on the nation of Ghana itself.
Reflecting on the duty of care owed to citizens in the diaspora, he asserted:
“When citizens of a country are under attack, the country itself is under attack,” he said.
The policy analyst highly commended the Ghanaian government’s rapid efforts to evacuate affected citizens. He revealed that he had previously advised state authorities to swiftly organise emergency airlift flights to bring vulnerable Ghanaians home the moment their physical safety could no longer be guaranteed by host law enforcement.
He rallied the nation to cast aside internal partisan bickering, stating that moments of acute national crisis should transcend political divisions and unite all citizens behind the fierce protection of supreme national interests.
“There are times when a nation must assert itself, and one of those times is when its citizens are under attack,” Mr Bentil stated.
Rejecting the Illegal Migrant Narrative
Mr Bentil aggressively dismissed defensive arguments often put forward by South African commentators that seek to justify or rationalise the violence by focusing solely on the irregular immigration status of some of the victims.
He noted that international humanitarian law and basic human decency dictate that every single person within a sovereign country’s territory deserves total protection under the law, regardless of their documentation status.
“If anybody enters your territory, you have a responsibility to protect that person,” he argued.
The IMANI Vice President described the recurring, bloody nature of the pogroms as clear, undeniable evidence of a broader, systemic failure by South African authorities to definitively address xenophobia. He pointed out that decades of repeated incidents suggest the violence can no longer be swept under the carpet as isolated occurrences.
Invoking a well-known analytical principle to demand accountability from Pretoria, Mr Bentil remarked:
“When something happens once, it may be accidental. Twice may be a coincidence. By the third time, it becomes a pattern that demands accountability,” he noted.
AU Weakness and Economic Retaliation
The African Union (AU) also came under heavy fire from the policy chief, who criticised the continental body for its persistent inability to effectively respond to structural challenges affecting ordinary Africans on the ground.
He noted that continental institutions must evolve past issuing generic press releases and play a more active role in protecting citizens while boldly holding member states accountable when human rights breaches occur.
To force a change in behaviour, Mr Bentil suggested that Ghana should immediately begin a thorough reassessment of aspects of its economic relationship with South African businesses if meaningful, permanent action is not taken to stop the attacks.
While clarifying that he was absolutely not advocating for violence or unlawful retaliation against South African businesses or citizens located in Accra, he maintained that governments possess an array of completely legitimate economic, fiscal, and regulatory tools they can deploy to defend national interests.
He stressed that all future bilateral engagements and corporate licensing regimes granted to South African companies must take into account the treatment of Ghanaians and other Africans within South Africa.
“We must ensure that our citizens are respected wherever they are. There has to be accountability and there has to be consequences,” he concluded, calling for a coordinated response involving diplomacy, legal action, and strategic economic pressure to end the cycle of violence.
